Electric Impulse had to win a $500,000 race twice, once out on the racetrack at Flemington and the second time in the stewards’ room.
The Henry Dwyer-trained Electric Impulse had to overcome the second widest barrier in the capacity field to contest the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final (1600m) on Tuesday.
Charging at the leaders in the final stages under Ben Allen, Electric Impulse ($18) scored a short-half-head victory over the $3 favourite Oh Too Good with Torranzino ($6) a head away third.
Damian Lane, the rider of the runner-up, headed to the stewards’ room to view the film of the race before lodging an objection over the 50m.
After a short deliberation, stewards dismissed the protest.
Dwyer, who scored with Asfoora at Royal Ascot in a Group 1 sprint in the middle of the year, said the stable was light on for numbers at the Melbourne Cup Carnival this year.
He had one runner finish midfield on Tuesday before Electric Impulse took out Thursday’s $500,000 race at benchmark 80 level, restricted to trainers licensed in Victoria that had not had 15 or more metropolitan winners in the previously completed racing season.
“We were a little bit light this year and only had two bullets to fire,” Dwyer said.
“The horse on Tuesday ran well, but didn’t win, and it was all up to her, and I would have been really, really confident coming here if she had drawn a gate.
“As it turned out, 18 came out at acceptance time, and we were just gutted, but the way the track’s been playing as well, you sort of can’t be wide and circling them, so Ben did a lovely job.”
While Dwyer’s main stable is at Ballarat, he does have access to the beach at St Leonards on the Bellarine Peninsula which the trainer said had been crucial in the mare’s success.
“She’s just obviously a very tough mare, and probably testament to, I suppose, our stables at Ballarat and St Leonards,” Dwyer said.
“We just thought she was probably coming to the end of it about six weeks ago, so we flipped her down to the beach and did a few things different with her down there.
“Tom (Sadler) and Sarah and Kath, who straps her, they’re all from down there, and they’ve done a wondrous job with her.
“Tom’s been riding her every morning and schooling her over a few logs and stuff down there, and there’s just nothing better for these mares with a bit of age on a bit of racing.
“A change of environment, some beach and some schooling, all that sort of stuff has helped.”